Israel now has Floyd Mayweather in its corner.
Speaking at a recent Republican Jewish Coalition conference in Las Vegas, the retired boxing legend made his commitment to Israel perfectly clear.
‘I’m not with you guys 10 percent, 50 percent,’ he told the appreciative crowd. ‘I will always be the voice for the people in Israel. I will always stand behind the country of Israel. The one and only Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather, and Israel, I will always be there for you guys when you guys don’t have a voice.’
Many were elated to see Mayweather speaking out in favor of Israel amid a tenuous ceasefire deal with Hamas following two years of bloodshed in Gaza and the October 7, 2023 attacks.
‘Thank you, @FloydMayweather for never backing down and always standing with Israel and the Jewish people!’ a self-described Zionist wrote on X.
Another added: ‘Big respect to a good man.’
Speaking at a recent Republican Jewish Coalition conference, the boxing legend made his commitment to Israel perfectly clear: ‘I will always stand behind the country of Israel’
But many others were upset about the Mayweather-Israel union for a variety of reasons.
‘Floyd is a puppet,’ one critic wrote. ‘Why the hell is he supporting Israel when people in America are struggling who’s paying him to say that?’
One fan responded to the clip from the Republican Jewish Coalition by declaring: ‘Ok, I’m turning Democrat.’
Others were more concise. Several called the speech ‘disgraceful’ while another claimed Mayweather ‘sold his soul.’
Mayweather made two trips to Israel following the terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023, when Hamas and other Palestinian paramilitary groups killed more than 1,000 Israelis and took another 250 hostage.
The subsequent two-year war has resulted in the deaths 68,865 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health (MoH), while Israel has claimed around 2,000 deaths, including IDF soldiers.
Relatives and friends mourn as they walk near the car carrying the coffin of slain hostage Yossi Sharabi during his funeral procession in Rishon LeZion, Israel last week
A boy reacts sitting amid the rubble of a house destroyed in an Israeli strike in Nuseira
As of October 6, 140 Israeli hostages have returned from Gaza while Israel has since returned Palestinian prisoners.
The Republican Jewish Coalition summit addressed what it sees as rising antisemitism on the right following conservative podcaster Tucker Carlson’s recent interview with Holocaust-denier Nick Fuentes.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz addressed that interview during a speech at the RJC summit on Thursday.
‘If you sit there with someone who says Adolf Hitler was very, very cool and that their mission is to combat and defeat ‘global Jewry,’ and you say nothing, then you are a coward and you are complicit in that evil,’ Cruz said Thursday.
Although Mayweather is retired, the 48-year-old is set to face 59-year-old Mike Tyson in an exhibition next spring.
